PRINCE MANZANO

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL

MODULE 5 ASSIGNMENT 1

The poem of Dr. Rizal “To my fellow Children” advises the youth to value the language of our birth. It is
also one that gives hope so that we can love even more the language that God has given us

The world is different from where it is and it is inevitable, most- young people today are fond of foreign
languages and rarely use their native language. My province in Pangasinan one of the best places in
northern Luzon is found to be an alarming issue regarding the use of the native language. It is stated
that only undeveloped areas speak Kapampangan and Pangasinan, and urbanized is affected by the
culture of Manila because they don’t speak the language. We have a lot of languages to be proud of and
we also have a lot to do to preserve them. Another, alarming issue is social media the contributors to
language disregard because of what they’re supporting and their perception has changed especially we
are amid Pandemic social media is rampant. For example, children age 3 to 6 years old watch foreign
nursery rhymes and they are speaking more foreign language than our native language, it is not bad
learning other language but it becomes inconvenient when we enjoy them more. How is the youth right
now? We are fighting and shouting for our islands in the West Philippine Sea but we are defeated by our
mindsets that we value other languages more than ours, the spirit of Rizal&poem is indeed dying. An
article stated, Languages that are at risk would score highly on the scale as these have a slim chance of
being transmitted to the younger members of a community. That’s why Dr. Jose Rizal stated “Whoever
knows not how to lo his native language, is worse than any beast or evil-smelling fish” it is all true we
are the new generation of the pungent smell. Is there anything we can do as youth? Yes, we can do a lot
as a youth that should raise the level of our speech, especially in our language. Use social media as a
platform, be an advocate to young people so that they know the importance of speaking our language,
and make them understand why we should fight for the language of our birth. Imitate Dr. Jose Rizal
even though he has a lot of knowledge in a different language he did not abandon his country and
preserve the Tagalog language which is one of the most used by Filipinos. As a student, I discover that
this course is also one that provides knowledge on why we should value our language. I saw the
appreciation of Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) because pure use of the Filipino language, especially in
other countries we enrich ourselves by using our language. If we want to succeed we use our own, we
must be proud of the use of language, must think that the wealth is in the language, and loving one's
language is equivalent to sacrificing one;s life for one;s own country.